Accidents Happen
by DarkandtwistyGirl
Summary: AU Season 1. Three years into his time at Stanford, Sam was trying out a friend’s motorbike, and it ended in tragedy. How will Dean take the news when he turns up at Stanford one year later? *Complete*
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, or any recognisable characters. **

**Thanks for all the votes guys, I really appreciate the help, and as a reward, here it is the most voted for plot.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

It is the middle of the night when Jessica Moore is woken by a loud crash downstairs. As she desperately tries not to panic Jess wraps her hand around a bat she keeps beside the bed and tiptoes downstairs, leaving her Sam asleep in their bed.

* * *

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs Jess decides to take her chances, and turn on the light, trying to convince herself she's being ridiculous. As she picks up the phone, she nervously calls out. "I'm calling 911."

"Wait! Don't! I'm not here to hurt you, please!" A male voice booms through the apartment from the next room, the living room.

Jess walks cautiously into the living room, keeping the bat close to her side. When she enters the room she sees a young man coming towards her, raising the bat slightly Jess questions. "Who are you? …What are you doing in my apartment?"

The man smiles awkwardly as he tells her. "I'm looking for my brother, Sam Winchester. He does live here right?"

"You're Dean?" Jess asks worriedly.

Dean nods, and with a laugh he tells her. "I know, you thought I'd be taller."

"...I have to say I didn't expect to meet you like this." Jess closes the gap between them, and extends her hand to him. "I'm Jess, Sam's girlfriend."

Dean shakes her hand, and whistles appreciatively, he then says. "Wow, you are way out of my little brother's league. …Where is he anyway?"

"You don't know, do you?"

Dean looks more than a little worried, giving Jess her answer. "What are you talking about? He's alright, isn't he?"

Almost immediately Jess looks like she wants to cry. "He… Last year… An accident…" She stammers, prompting Dean to help her over to an overstuffed couch, before sitting down beside her.

"Where's my brother?" Dean questions with panic in his voice.

Now the tears are flowing down her face. "Last year he was in an accident… He's upstairs, he was hurt very badly."

Dean stares at her shocked. "What?"

They sit in silence for a few moments before Dean bolts up the stairs, needing to see his brother. "Wait, please! You shouldn't…" Jess yells, chasing after him desperate to stop him before he reaches the bedroom; she doesn't succeed.

* * *

When Dean enters the main bedroom he is shocked by the sheer volume of medical supplies, it's more like a hospital room than a bedroom, and when his glance reaches his baby brother's body lying in amongst all that equipment, connected to a ventilator through a horrifying tube sticking out of his neck, Dean nearly runs out of there. _This must be some kind of messed up dream, surely this can't be happening._

"I'm sorry, if you hadn't have run up here, maybe I could've-"

"What?! What the hell could you have done?! What happened to him?" Dean demands, fighting to hold back complete panic.

"He-" Jess begins to speak, but she sees that Sam is awake, and she quickly moves to his side, ignoring Dean as she asks Sam. "Hey baby, are you alright?"

As far as Dean can see, Sam doesn't respond, so he is surprised when a moment later, Jess says. "Good, I'll be right outside, try and sleep. I love you." Before standing up, and motioning for Dean to follow her as she walks towards the doorway.

* * *

Once they are out in the hallway, Dean once again angrily demands. "What the hell happened to Sam?! What's going on here?"

"Be quiet." Jess hisses angrily, but once she sees the devastated look on Dean's face she softens her tone as she says. "He needs his rest. Ever since …the accident, he gets tired easily."

"The accident?" Dean pushes; he needs to know why his brother is lying in a bed, helpless.

Jess takes a shaky breath, and then she tells Dean. "It was about a year ago, one of our friends had just gotten a new motorbike, and we were all messing around with it on an old highway, there're usually no other cars or anything, it didn't matter that we could barely keep it upright. Sam… he… when it was his go, he was doing better than any of us, but then, a car came out of no where around a blind corner…" Jess wipes a tear away from her eye as she continues. "It was going so fast. He couldn't get out of the way in time." She finishes with a harsh sob, tears now rolling unchecked down her face.

Dean doesn't know what to say. His brother was hit by a car. Just from the brief look he got at him, Dean can imagine what kind of injuries he must've gotten.

* * *

It is almost ten minutes before Jess calms herself down enough to continue. She looks up at Dean, the pain and despair in her expression is clear, as she asks him. "What're you doing here?"

Dean is hesitant, but eventually he tells her. "Our dad's gone missing ...I didn't know where else to go."

Jess is silent for a moment before she asks him. "Have you called the police?"

"No." Dean answers a little too quickly, he then more smoothly tells her. "It's not their sort of problem, trust me."

"Um, okay." Jess mumbles uncertainly, what else can she do? She knows that there must be more to the story, but he doesn't want to tell her, and she can't make him.

There is an awkward pause before Dean asks her. "What actually happened to Sam? Why is he like that? You know…" He trails off, not knowing how to say it.

After a moment, Jess tells him. "It's called internal decapitation." She pauses when she sees Dean flinch, but then continues. "Most people don't survive it, he's really lucky. But it left him paralysed from the neck down, he can't breathe on his own, so he has the ventilator, which means he can't speak; we use eye movements for him to communicate."

There is yet another pause as Dean comes to realise that that is what they were doing before, Sam must have given her a sign, too subtle for him to notice. He quickly asks. "How do you do that? What's the system?"

Jess smiles at Dean warmly, glad that he really seems to care, and that he clearly wants to stay around. "It's pretty basic. Yes and no questions, one blink is yes, two is no. Like I said, pretty basic."

"Okay." Dean replies, he then adds. "You don't happen to have a spare room here? I want to stay."

Jess thinks for a moment before she tells him. "We don't, but your welcome to stay on the couch. But I thought you had to go look for your dad? What're you going to do?"

"Dad can look after himself. Sam needs me more." Dean says firmly; his need to take care of Sam overriding all else.

Then, their conversation over, before Jess goes back to bed, she quickly puts together a makeshift bed on the couch, floral donna and all, which Dean is too exhausted to even notice.

* * *

Things glide along, pretty much 'normal' for the next few days, but then one night, Dean has been lying awake in bed, worrying about Sam, and trying to figure everything out in his head, with little success. And then suddenly, without any warning an explosion rocks the thin walls of the apartment.

It came from the main bedroom.

* * *

**TBC...**

**Yeah, I know I'm evil, major cliffy in the first chapter, very evil.**

**Thanks for reading! **

**Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this fic!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, or any recognisable characters. **

**Wow. I was so overwhelmed by the response to this little fic, thanks you so much to everyone who has read and reviewed it. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Dean jumps out of bed, and makes a frantic dash up the stairs towards the main bedroom, there's smoke filling the hallway, and he struggles to breathe, but Dean continues, desperate to reach his brother and Jess.

Dean feels his hand getting scorched as he turns the door handle, and pushes open the door. "Fuck!" Dean swears as he sees the flames coming from the ceiling, Jess pinned to the ceiling in the centre of the flames, her mouth contorted into a silent scream.

It is quickly evident to Dean that the explosion he heard was from one of the oxygen cylinders for Sam, and that the system keeping Sam alive could kill them at any second.

Ignoring the unbearable heat, Dean goes to Sam's side, and as he disconnects him from the ventilator, and gathers him up in his arms, he reassures his brother. "It's okay, Sammy. We're gonna get outta here."

And true to his promise, Dean carries Sam out of the burning building, giving him breaths through the trach tube in his neck, despite his own lack of oxygen.

* * *

Dean doesn't stop breathing for Sam until the paramedics arrive, and even then it isn't until they have assessed the situation and forcibly pulled him away from Sam, so that they can administer oxygen to him.

It isn't until Dean stops fighting the paramedics, and sits down on the grass, that the adrenaline wears off, and as it does he rapidly finds himself slipping out of consciousness.

* * *

As soon as the paramedics tending to Dean see him starting to get a bit unsteady, they quickly help him sit down, and as they are getting the oxygen mask out, he falls back to the ground.

There is a rush as they check him over, and their check leads them to quickly decide to move him straight to the hospital, stabilising him on the way, along with his brother.

* * *

The medical staff moves Sam and Dean into adjoining treatment rooms as soon as they arrive at the hospital, and begin to treat them both. Sam, unable to communicate, and unbeknown to the staff, still in shock from the sight of his beloved girlfriend being murdered before his eyes and being helpless to stop it, is more or less ignored as they treat the superficial burns and reconnect him to a ventilator.

* * *

And at the same time, Dean, unconscious from smoke inhalation is slipping away rapidly, and fearing that his airway will swell closed, the doctors insert a breathing tube, and soon he too is on a ventilator.

* * *

It is two days before Dean is strong enough to be taken off the ventilator, and when he is, the first words out of his mouth, are shockingly. "Where's Sam?"

The nurse, Katie, who is looking after him, gently tells him. "Sam is in the next room, he's doing well, but…" She trails off, uncertain of how her patient will respond to what she has to say.

Dean hoarsely shouts at her. "But what?!"

Sighing, Katie tells him. "We have had to keep him sedated, everytime we try to wean him off the sedatives he becomes very agitated."

As soon as he hears this, Dean tries to jump out of bed, but in his current state, he is quickly stopped by the petite nurse. "Damn it. Let me go. I have to see Sam."

Katie pauses a moment before she tells Dean. "You can't go anywhere right now, but if you'll just relax, I'll talk to your doctor, and maybe you can go later."

"Fine. I'll go see him later." Dean says, feigning defeat, though he is already planning his escape.

"Okay." Katie replies, believing his lie as she walks out of the room.

* * *

Dean makes his 'escape' within minutes of the nurse leaving, and with a massive effort, he manages to walk over to Sam's room. He curses silently as he sees that a doctor is standing at Sam's bedside, and before he can leave, the doctor turns around. The glint in his eyes is the only warning Dean gets before he is thrown backwards, into a wall.

Dean struggles futilely against the invisible bonds as the apparently possessed doctor walks over to him.

Much to Dean's surprise, the demon stops just short of him, and simply tells him. "It's a pity, I had such great plans for Sammy." Before escaping the doctor's body, causing the physician to fall bonelessly to the floor, with Dean quickly doing to same.

* * *

When Dean makes his return to consciousness, his glance goes straight to Sam. He seems to be untouched. He then looks to the doctor, starting to stir beside him.

He sits up gingerly, every muscle in his body aching, and before he can stand up, the doctor's eyes open, and he looks up at Dean as he says. "What the hell was that?!"

In spite of himself, Dean laughs bitterly as he tells the man. "You don't want to know about it, and I don't think it'll be back." Dean considers telling him not to tell anyone, but somehow he doesn't think that's necessary.

Still stunned, the doctor merely nods, and as soon as he can stand, he hurries from the room.

* * *

Once he's alone, Dean moves straight to Sam's side, and out of exhaustion, he lies down beside Sam, and falls asleep.

Dean is woken not long after he fell asleep, by Katie, who looks less than pleased by his current location. When she sees that his eyes are open, Katie says him. "Come on, Dean, time to go back to your room."

Dean sits up, but doesn't stand up, just telling her. "I'm not leaving my brother. And you need to get his doctor in here right now and get him to stop these drugs, Sam doesn't need them."

Katie is taken aback by his abruptness, but then asks him. "Why doesn't he need them? Do you know something we don't?"

Dean looks at Sam's unconscious form as he tells her. "I couldn't get there fast enough, there wasn't enough time to get them both out. Sammy's girlfriend, Jess was, she was caught, and the fire…" Dean pauses, blocking out the horrific memory. "Sam saw his girlfriend being burned alive, and because of his goddamn injury, he couldn't do anything. Trust me, I can calm him down. You can't leave him like this."

"Okay." Katie tells Dean, and then she adds. "I'll get his doctor to come and talk to you about it."

* * *

Two hours and a lot of negotiation later, Dean is sitting at Sam's side as he starts to come around. Dean is on his feet, in Sam's line of sight instantly. "It's okay, Sammy. Everything's gonna be okay."

After a moment, Sam blinks twice, no.

Dean insistently replies. "We are gonna be okay, Sam. We're going to get through this." And then he just places his hand on Sam's hair, and strokes it gently, reassuringly until Sam drifts back to sleep.

Not long after Sam is awake, Katie brings another doctor into the room, and introduces him to the boys as Dr Jones, from neurology. He is quick to tell Sam and Dean. "I heard about your case, Sam. I think I have a way that you will be able to communicate effectively."

"What is it?" Dean says quickly, but still apprehensively. What if it puts Sam in danger?

"It is called an 'eye response' system, and it is basically a computer with a speech synthesizer program, which you can operate with your eye movements. It may take time to learn how to use it, but I have seen excellent results."

Dr Jones barely finishes explaining before Dean says. "When can he start?"

* * *

"Can't stay here. Memories." Sam says as soon as Dean comes back from getting some lunch a week later, using the 'eye response' system. He's only had it for a couple of days, and still has a lot to learn, but everyone has been impressed with how quickly he's picked it up, except Dean, he knew Sam would take to it easily. _Kid always was a chatterbox._

"I'll find us somewhere, Sammy. Don't worry about it." Dean replies confidently, reassuringly, knowing exactly why Sam wants to leave. Dean is determined to do things right by Sam, and find a way to make everything work.

* * *

Several months later, Dean has rented a small house in a rural area of Colorado, and is working at a local garage to support himself and Sam.

Sam couldn't bare living in the city where his girlfriend was killed, and Dean decided that Colorado was as good a place as any.

The major downside of his job is that it meant that he was forced to hire a nurse to take care of Sam six days a week, nine to five, but there really is no other alternative.

John was around for a couple of weeks after the fire, he really only wanted to find out more about his demon hunt, and so as soon as he found nothing, he got restless and left. He now only stops by sporadically, usually in the middle of the night after having been hurt on a hunt; he never stays long and rarely helps with the money.

Dean lives in constant fear that the demon will return, he keeps holy water stashed around the house, and has Sam's room protected with every symbol and charm possible, but so far there's been no sign of it.

But despite all this hardship and more, Dean is grateful to have his brother with him, and since they started using the 'eye response' system, they have been able to communicate easily; Sam has even taught Dean how to do research for hunts, which in turn, Dean hands on to any hunters that come through the area.

It's far from perfect, but they have found their 'normal' life.

* * *

**The End.**

**Thanks for reading! **

**I really thought this would be a multi cahpter fic, but I think this ending sorta works. **

**Please review, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this fic!**


End file.
